MARY, OUR MOTHER

MARY'S HEART - FLOWERS

2. The Virginal Lily.
Amongst all the flowers which form the crown of the Heart of Mary there is one in the center which looks higher and spreads over Her Heart. It is a snow-white lily; the symbolism is quite evident. If all the flowers of that crown represent the virtues of Our Mother, what is the meaning of that ravishing lily which in the very center of that Heart so vigorously shoots and blossoms forth? Christian people long ago gave the answer: They call the Heart of Mary Most Pure and Immaculate for immaculate purity is the characteristic trait of the Heart of Mary.

So beautiful it is that the Church does not hesitate to apply to it the words which holy Scripture applies to the Divine Wisdom: it is the shining of the eternal light, the reflection of the beauty of God, the spotless mirror of His infinite sanctity.

We could view Mary's purity in two ways; in a negative manner meaning thereby the absence of every sin. Thus Mary shines without the smallest blemish, without the slightest shadow, without the tiniest imperfection.

Even the most saintly soul could not avoid some of those little miseries, children of our weakness. Nor does this lessen their sanctity for these involuntary imperfections grow and die with human nature. But it was not so with the Heart of Our Heavenly Mother, where not even the slightest involuntary imperfection casually tarnished even for a moment that Heart. God protected Her from the enemy who could never score any triumph over Her. How beautifully clean, how shining, how spotless was Her Heart.

We must not stop here but go deeper into that positive purity which does not consist in the mere absence of stains but rather in a positive sharing in the purity of God Himself. Absence of sin is an essential condition that God may be pleased with us. But what is really great, wonderful and divine is that the soul commune with Him, that God should give Himself up to it and render it a partaker, through grace, of His very life.

The real positive beauty of a soul, its true purity consists in that sanctifying grace which floods it and makes it mirror God's image. Think what would be the pure beauty of that Virgin whose Heart was from the beginning possessed by God. Try to ponder the meaning of the words of the Angel, the Lord is with thee. God permanently dwells in the Heart of the Virgin and that is why this Heart is most pure and immaculate not only in a negative sense but also in a positive manner. It has no shadow, it has no stain, instead it contains the fullness of the grace of God. It enshrines in itself the purity of God Himself. It contains in itself the purity of God Himself. It contains God.

But there is yet still more, much more. You should not imagine Mary's purity as a grace so granted by God that she behaves in a merely passive way: that She was a kind of mirror, shining and clear, mechanically reflecting the rays which fall upon it. No! Mary would respond in Her most pure Heart to every ray of light, of grace, of sanctity which came from God with a renewed act of love of God in such a manner that Her Heart so marvelously active, would through Her ever-growing love induce the Heart of God to shower new graces. You can then see how great was Mary's share in the acquisition and preservation of Her immaculate purity.

[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]